Monday, December 31, 2007

Three Wise Monkeys Plus One

See, Hear, Speak, and Do No Evil
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The orthodox dogmas of Christianity are in tatters, or it is more like confetti now… after early Christian codex known as the Gospel of Judas has revealed that Jesus asked his close disciple, Judas Iscariot to sell him out to the authorities, encouraging Judas that he will exceed the other disciples by doing so.

The Gospel of Judas was not the only manuscript that depicts a portrait of Jesus so at odd with the canonical Gospels…Gospel of Thomas butts head with the Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel: Thomas’ Jesus never performs a miracle, never calls himself the Son of God, and he never claims that he will have to die for the sins of humanmankind.

Thomas’s ignores the virgin birth and there were no inkling of some impending Day of Judgement.
That’s why early Christian Fathers burned this manuscript and threw it away in the ocean, because it was not palatable to the Emperor, bishops and church institution.

And here comes with a fiction novel “Da Vinci Code” filmed that premiers in May all over the world that makes the Christian orthodoxy run amuck to cast aspersion on the contents of movie.

And the Korean Christian organisations are the first group sounding the battle cry against the release of the Da Vinci Code movie, petitioning the court for a temporary injunction to ban for the domestic show.

In its press release, the Christian Council of Korea (Han-Ki-Chong) said: “We cannot help but have deeep concern that the film may disparage and insult the divinity of Jesus Christ and the truths told in the Bible. The movie will severely infringe on individual’s religious beliefs and will be an obstacle to the Christian Church’s missionary work.”

In addition, the CCK said: the film makes people-to Christian or non-Christian alike-believe that a fictional tale is historical fact.In the first place, it seems absurd and bizarre to hear that the CCK attempts to represent the whole population of the South Korea, Christians and Non-Christians alike, when you take into account the fact that Korean Christians are mere one thirds of the population.

And I pity on them when they worry about their missionary work…if one movie could hinder their endeavor to convert non-believers, their missionary work is not worth a grain of salt.In the Japanese proverbial saying, three wise monkeys are a pictorial maxim…”Mizaru” covers his eyes seeing no evil, “Kikazaru” covers his ears hearing no evil, and “Iwazaru” covers his mouth speaking no evil.

The idea behind the proverb was originated from Indian god Vadjra that if we do not see, hear, or talk evil, we ourselves shall be spared all evil and in the West it is reflected in the English proverb: Talk of the devil and the devil appears.
Sometimes a fourth monkey is depicted with the three others, the last one “Shizaru” covering his crotch: “Do No Evil.”

The CCK plays a role of three monkeys attempting to make Koreans blind, deaf, and mute in their spiritual endeavor that only an imperial religion imposed on their people as humans have experienced in the dark ages and during the Spanish Inquisition.

Since the days of Constantine, emperors, bishops, popes, and rich men have sought the same path of three monkeys in order to co-opt the teachings of Jesus.
As the modern day evangelicals cherrypick the verses of the Bible for their “purpose-driven work”, a majority of Korean churches firmly remains in the realm of the orthodox dogmas and refuses to let their congregants see, hear, speak and do something that goes against the orthodoxy.

The CCK does not want their congregation to be exposed to the Gnostics’ beliefs including the Gospels of Judas, Thomas, Q, Mary Magdalene and Philip that were viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox and heretical manuscripts.

In other words, they prefer to have a Jesus in the canonical Gospels who could forgive sins and promise an eternal life to a Gnostics’ wandering Jesus who calls for voluntary poverty and is hard on rich men.

And the Church knows that Korean Christians were programmed never to believe that Judas Iscariot was not so much a betrayer of Jesus but an enabler of salvation who facilitates the execution of Jesus at the cross.

In essence, one thing becomes very clear and truthful after the discoveries of many ancient manuscripts about the Christianity: the Bible is not the literal words of God as the fundamentalists claim but a product of religious and political forces in the early centuries that determined which manuscripts should be included in the canon and which should be left out as spurious and heretic ones.

The cherrypicking for canonization was done by emperor, bishops, archbishops, popes, and the institution, and we, the 21st century humans, are asked “Do No Evil” of snoopy, nosy, and gossipy around the unorthodox Gospels.

After all, didn’t the Christianity start as an imperial religion and thrive on for 2000 years?

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